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Archive | Forest Cobra Project

Ok, in less than a week our Forest Cobra will be undergoing surgery under the steady hand of Suzanne to have his telemtry unit fitted. A big thank you to the Invicta Arachnid Club from the UK for their donation towards this. We are testing a new release site which will allow us to better […]

Well, the day has finally come where we say goodbye to Gizmo. In case you missed it, Gizmo was one of the original snakes in our telemetry research project. Unfortunately Gizmo was just a little too small and did not react well to the telemetry unit after the Surgery. There was only […]

Well, we found Lucas, but I sort of wish we hadn’t. Bad news today everyone, it would appear that despite being a fairly large black mamba, Lucas has become food. We found his remains bearing a broken neck, so we at least know that death would have come fairly quickly to poor Lucas. It would appear […]

In the short duration of our telemetry project so far, we have discovered that all three snakes seem to have taken up residence in specific areas of the bush in which they were released. Using this knowledge, we have set up motion activated nightvision cameras, these cameras were supplied to us by Brickhouse Security. Trying […]

It would appear that Chelsea has indeed found herself a little underground home. Two days in a row now we have spotted her sunbathing and then – when she realises we want a photograph – gets camera shy and hightails it into a nearby termite mound. Now, I realise the pictures aren’t very good, but […]

It has been decided among the crew that Gizmo should be rereleased. However we have decided this time to release him without the transmitter. He is just a little too small and whilst he is doing fine in captivity with the transmitter in place we have our doubts about how well he will be able […]

Well folks, it’s been a few days since we gave Lucas some breathing space to settle into his surroundings – and we’re pleased to say that he is still in the area. He is the one snake that we thought might move out of the area but there he was sunning himself, presumably happy for […]

Hey everyone, Well some good news and some bad news. We have confirmed visual sightings of all four snakes! The transmitters are all working well (thank you Victor Hugo – they are awesome), and most of the snakes tried to avoid us – always a good sign! Chelsea is still being a lady of leisure – except […]

Today is the day! The sun is shining, the wind is still and our snakes have been charging themselves in the sunlight as though they had solar panels. In addition to our release crew today we had three guests who wanted to come along and experience the buzz. That’s the joy about Umkhumbi Lodge, you […]

Ok, here we are, we have snakes and we have transmitters. Now with months and weeks and days of planning all behind us it is surgery day. The penultimate day, the day when we find out which of our snakes are strong enough for the implantation of the transmitters. So, the breakdown; Forest Cobra […]